Monday, November 4, 2013

In addition to all the things I clip from books and magazines, rescue
from recycle bins, and pick up off the road, I get oodles of wonderful
things in the mail from pen-pals and MMSA swappers.

It comes in at a much higher speed than it gets used.

And I won't even talk about the "I'm saving this for something special" mentality, and the "this is too good to use" line of specious reasoning.

BUT, drawing on the endless inspiration I get from reading Green Glass, and seeing all the creative ways Liz turns her ephemera into books, I got serious about diving into my stash this weekend.

I grabbed the most recent bits of stuff from my inbox as well as favorite images stored in a cigar box "for later" and spread them on a folding table, imported to the art room for this very purpose.

Thanks, as always, to Jake for his assistance with this critical mission.

My primary goals were to treat nothing as precious, and to use as much as I could in one weekend.

I started with 2 old file folders, rescued from the recycle bin at work. I cut them into quarters, and then folded each of the 8 pieces in half.

This gave me 32 surfaces to cover.

Here are the results.

Some I love, some I hate, but all were fun to make:

#1

#2-3

#4

#5 The brown part is a half-page with blue circles glued on top, and holes that show the green page below

#6 & #7: Here's what it looks like when that half-page is turned.

#8

#9 & #10: Painted tag taped into the middle of a two page spread

(Same spread with the tag flipped the other way)

#11

#12

#13

#14: I've been saving that electrical-outlet-with-eyeball image for years

#15

#16: found poetry

#17: It's possible I never throw any scraps away. Ever.

#18 & #19

#20

#21

#22: This one kept going from bad to worse, so I went over the top

#23

#24

#25

#26

#27

#28

#29

#30

#31

#32

It took the better part of three days, but I managed to cover every surface.

And what did I do with them?

Stitched them together into a book, of course!

At first I thought I'd just make a Diana Trout-style duct tape journal and hold it together with rubber bands, but I upped the ante on myself last night and used the long-stitch binding method (also learned from Diana Trout!) to make this book:

CitraSolv papers grace both the inside and outside covers.

I may or may not add more collage to the cover surfaces.

This makes me so incredibly happy.

I wish I could say this project used up all the scraps on that table, but not even close.

I made these two journals and donated them to my friend Judah's Etsy shop.

Judah's partner, Charlie, suffered a debilitating stroke in August, and as they struggle to rebuild their lives they are raising money to defray their ongoing expenses.

These two journals, along with over a hundred other gorgeous items, are for sale at Charlies Spot.

It's the perfect place to start your Christmas shopping - there are original paintings, affordable prints, hand made jewelry, dolls, books, ornaments and more. All proceeds go towards their medical bills, cost of ongoing therapy, and the remodeling of their home to make it more accessible for Charlie. You get a beautiful work of art and you get to help a fellow artist. Win!

Here are some close up shots of the journals I made.

They are both about 4"x5".

The covers are handmade "fabric paper" embellished with more of my hand-painted papers.

They have hand-sewn bindings, and are filled with about 40 pages of blank Stonehenge paper (suitable for watercolor, printmaking, drawing, and mixed-media.)

This one has an elasticized cord to hold it shut:

Nice deckled edges on the paper:

Long-stitch binding with waxed linen thread:

This one has actual dried ferns adhered to it:

View of the back cover:

Another fern on the inside of the back cover:

Close up of the crazy stitched circles on the cover:

I love making books. Every time I finish binding a book I wonder why I don't do this all day every day? Why did I wait almost a year since my last book-binding session?

Unanswerable questions.

If you'd like to own one of these for yourself, head on over to Charlie's Spot.

They are a mere $25 each.

Maybe while you're there you'll find treasures for everyone on your gift list!

UPDATE: As of Monday night, the blue one has sold! Thanks, Vicki.Another update: The orange one sold too!